Chancellor confirms East Midlands Investment Zone

Rachel Reeves used her maiden Budget speech to confirm the approval of a £160m East Midlands Investment Zone that will support advanced manufacturing and green industries.

The funding for the sites at – Hartington-Staveley site, in Chesterfield, Infinity Park, at Derby and The Explore Park at Worksop – will be spread over ten years.

Reeves also mentioned that the Labour government would spend almost £1bn on the aerospace sector in the East Midlands – and South-West – over the course of the next five years.

There was also more good news for the East Midlands Combined County Authority as Reeves confirmed the new body will have “borrowing powers across the full range of their functions”.

However, the East Midlands appeared to miss out yet again on any substantial rail investment.

The Budget mentioned upgrades to services in the north and south, but failed to address the struggling rail infrastructure in the East Midlands.

Instead, a vague statement could be found in the bowels of the main Budget document, that said: “The Secretary of State for Transport’s plans for reform, will look at changes to fares, services and workforce practices to deliver a modern railway that meets how people now want to travel. These will increase efficiency and reduce costs, while boosting ridership and revenue and improving performance, laying the groundwork for the transition to Great British Railways.”

Great British Railways will be based in Derby.

Malcolm Prentice, group chairman of rail depot firm MTMS, based in Moira, Leicestershire, said: “It’s good news that the Government has agreed with the common sense view by ensuring HS2 will reach Euston after all, but otherwise, apart from the Transpennine upgrade and better rail links between Oxford and Cambridge, there is nothing to help SMEs in the rail industry, or to help the national transport infrastructure on a meaningful level.

“We always knew that the priorities will be the NHS and education but today has not been convincing as taxing and borrowing is the name of the game and, instead of making Britain’s SMEs the new engine room for the economic future, it has done the exact reverse.

“Businesses like ours need to be able in invest in ourselves in order to bring investment into the rail sector, but this is less likely to happen. Paying more to get less is not good for any employer and nor does it encourage companies to self-fund innovation projects.”